17-year-old D Gukesh made chess history at the 2024 FIDE Candidates this past weekend as the youngest-ever winner of the Candidates. He’ll also be the youngest to play in a World Chess Championship match — where he’ll face reigning world champion Ding Liren of China.

Congratulations to Tan Zhongyi, too, who won first place in the Women’s section! ♟️

 ☕️Postcall’s one-sip markets update:

Our stock portfolio has us thinking harder than Hikaru Nakamura when Gukesh played 5...Be7 in the FIDE semifinals. The S&P 500 just had its worst week in more than a year due to AI skepticism (case in point: Nvidia alone lost $212 billion in value on Friday). But this week is also earnings week for Tesla (+13% yesterday), Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet. Maybe that’ll give us some positive news to turn it around.

Ready for this week’s stories?

Staying #Up2Date 🚨

1. American College of Physicians (ACP) updates type 2 diabetes guidelines

In a nutshell, the ACP recommends adding an SGLT-2i or GLP-1 agonist to metformin and lifestyle modifications. The SGLT-2i reduces the risk for all-cause mortality, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and hospitalization due to congestive heart failure (CHF). The GLP-1 agonist can be used to reduce the risk for all-cause mortality, MACE, and stroke.

2. Beta-blockers for all, no more?

A Swedish open-label, randomized trial compared long-term metoprolol or bisoprolol vs. no beta-blocker in 5K patients with a preserved ejection fraction after an acute MI (patients are status post angiography and coronary revascularization). All-cause death or recurrent MI did not differ significantly between groups at the 3.5-year median follow-up (7.9% and 8.3%), suggesting that perhaps the era of “beta-blockers for all” after acute MI is coming to an end. 

3. It’s OctreoTIME 

An open-label randomized trial from the Netherlands enrolled 62 patients with angiodysplasias and transfusion-dependent anemia. Participants either got octreotide 40mg IM q28d vs. usual care (i.e., as-needed transfusions of iron or blood) for 1 year. All patients had undergone argon-plasma coagulation previously. At the 1-year follow-up, patients in the octreotide group had required  ≈10 fewer blood or iron transfusions (21.2 vs 11.0) and ≈1 fewer endoscopies per patient.

👨‍💻Heidi’s Tech Bites

1: 📱Time may be running out for TikTok, as Biden signed a bill yesterday that would ban the app if the China-based company doesn’t sell within 270 days. TikTok, however, plans to fight back. “Rest assured — we aren't going anywhere,” TikTok’s CEO said.

2: 🚀 NASA and Nokia have partnered to set up a cellular network on the Moon. Later this year, a SpaceX rocked will carry a simple 4G network, which will be installed on the Moon’s south pole. The challenge? There are several, including deploying the network without a technician, and the network being able to operate in extreme temperatures and radiation.

3: 📦 Amazon is closing its drone delivery operations in California. Is this a sign they’re throwing in the towel with Prime Air? Absolutely not. Though Amazon isn’t offering details about the apparent setback, they said it’s a move to “prioritize [their] resources” and plan to launch a drone program in Arizona later this year.

Want to use AI instead of just reading about it (or waiting for Google)? Try Heidi, the only free AI scribe.

Non-competes are obsolete 🤝 

The FTC's recent 3-2 decision to prohibit non compete clauses marks a significant shift for the health care sector.

What you need to know: Noncompete agreements have typically been associated with both high-level executives and lower-income employees, yet a significant portion of medical professionals, including 37% to 45% of physicians as noted by the American Medical Association, are also impacted.

The FTC estimates that the elimination of these clauses could lead to a reduction in health care costs by as much as $194 billion over the next decade. The agency suggests that noncompetes contribute to industry consolidation and higher costs.

How do folks feel about it?

• "Doctors are trapped in places where they may or may not feel good about the care that they are able to provide," Elizabeth Wilkins, senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project

• A "significant" number of the roughly 26,000 comments the FTC received on the rule came from health care employees, especially doctors, agency chair Lina Khan said Tuesday.

• Hospitals, particularly for-profit ones, argue that noncompetes are vital for recruiting and retaining talent and predict that the FTC's rule will face significant legal challenges. 

Any exceptions? Noncompetes tied to the sale of a business, like a physician practice, would still be allowed under the FTC rule.

So now what? If you have a non compete in your contract, don’t rush to quit your job just yet. Implementation of the ruling will take years and will need to overcome lawsuits from business groups. But for now, it doesn’t hurt to also brush up on your negotiation skills as well, in case a new employer comes knocking. Here are the most common things to ask for:

• Increased salary

• Time outside of patient care hours to complete administrative tasks

• CME funding

• Work location and schedule clarification or changes

• Increased time off

• Clearer for-cause termination provisions

For more tips, check out the AMA’s resource on negotiations for physicians here.

Notable Numbers 🔢

$76,535: the salary (in US currency) of the WNBA’s #1 draft pick Caitlin Clark. This is a) less than what some NBA mascots apparently earn, and b) considerably less than the NBA’s top pick (whose base salary last year was more than $12M). While we’re advocates of fair pay, we don’t feel too bad: she also just signed a $28M deal with Nike.

2x: the increased likelihood of people with microplastics or nanoplastics in their carotid artery tissues of having a heart attack, stroke, or die from any cause over the next 3 years, according to a study in the NEJM.

8.15%: in a study, the percentage of women who died who were treated by female physicians — compared to 8.38%, the number of women who died who were treated by male physicians. The study included nearly 800,000 male and female patients ages 65 and older, and adds to a growing collection of research that looks at why women and minorities receive worse medical care than men and white patients.

Postcall Picks ✅ 

🍔 Eat: some matzo ball soup this Passover. Even if you’re not observing this Jewish holiday, you can enjoy 18 great recipes for Passover meals here.

👀 Watch: Shōgun from FX, which we’re hearing is racking up rave reviews. Here’s a preview into its masterful use of translation.

🤣 Laugh: when you’re asked to correlate clinically.

doctor.jaykay

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